Monday Granada to Sevilla

Monday – Granada to Sevilla – Judy’s Unbirthday
Re: Sunday in Granada – I forgot to mention that we had stopped for a glass of vino in a local square at the top of the town prior to going to the Flamenco show. I left it out because it didn’t seem particularly memorable at the time. I mention it now because it had quite an effect on the next day. Well, the local square looked very “local” with non-tourists hanging out including a few “black feet.” Black feet is the name given by the Souterners to a large contingent of young people from Northern Spain who are spending time (months, years) in the South getting by camping, etc. ) They are sort of present day Spanish hippies many from wealthy families. Dreadlocks are common. Anyway we stopped for a glass of vino….
We sat out in the square and the closest “restaurant/bar” waiter came and took our order. He returned with the vino and a small plate of mystery meat in a brown sauce and French fries. It is very common in Spain to be served “tapas” in the afternoon/evening complimentary. We were going to be having dinner later at the 10 pm flamenco show but we sampled the “tapa” so as not to appear rude. The meat and sauce was barely warm. Michael didn’t partake believing cool meat to be potentially dangerous. Judy and I had a couple of bites each and a few French fries, which had the sauce on them. We decided that it would be best to feed the remainder to the dogs that were hanging out at our table. One of which, a part Great Dane female, obviously belonged to one the black feet females.
The dog’s owner came over and we had a very nice conversation with her. She had been in Granada for almost a year coming to be with her “novio.” She was educated as a social worker but said it isn’t possible to find a job. She was from Barcelona, very delightful, and seemed to be enjoying her life as a black foot.
We planned have a great day – one of the reasons being that it was Judy’s birthday. We left early to drive to Sevilla, planning to take our time and drive on some back roads and see a few hilltowns and rural landscape. Our rental car came with a Garmin GPS system. We didn’t follow the Garmin’s directions because we had already decided our preferred route. The countryside was very beautiful. The first hilltown was charming built on the top and side of a gorge. We had lunch in the first nice looking (actually quite elegant) restaurant we passed. We ordered lunch – Michael lasagna, me tomato/seafood soup (I suddenly wasn’t feeling so good, and Judy ordered eggplant expecting a stew. I tried my soup and it tasted “off” and I ate about half of it. Michael’s lasagna was very strange and obviously just microwaved. Judy’s was definitely the worst though – it was hunks of fried eggplant with a thick very doughy and very greasy covering.
After this delightful lunch we got back in the car and headed out for more rural driving. This turned out to be very, very rural with cows in the road and very windy and hilly. By now both Judy and I were feeling what we thought was car sick. By 5 pm we got to the second hilltown – realizing we still needed to drive to Sevilla. Judy and I were glad to get out of the car but anxious to get to our hotel in Sevilla. After a quick tour of the hilltown we decided to let the Garmin GPS lady get us Sevilla. Unfortunately apparently the Garmin was set on taking the shortest route vs. the fastest. We were directed to a really bad road that didn’t even have a white line divider in the middle and it was again very windy with signs saying look out for livestock. It took us about 2 ½ hours to get to Sevilla. By now I was becoming aware that it wasn’t car sickness but food poisoning.
We had already heard from some Americans earlier at one of our hotels that the Sevilla Hotel, Amadeus, was impossible to drive to. We were sure that the Garmin lady would solve this problem. By the time we got to the Sevilla old town we knew we were in deep trouble. She kept telling us to turn left when there were signs saying no left turn. Around and around we went for about 45 minutes. Up and down one way streets, around blocks, never even find the street for the hotel. We were becoming desperate. We ended up on a little street blocked by a taxi unloading passengers with a lot of luggage. Judy got out to ask the cab driver where the Amadeus Hotel was. He told her but of course since we didn’t know the names of any of the streets it didn’t help. Then Judy had a great idea. She got in that cab and he drove, we followed, to the Amadeus. Of course finding a place to park the car was another major undertaking. We were directed to a garage but it was very confusing and we ended up in the wrong part of the garage. Fortunately a very nice couple in the garage escorted Michael and Judy to get to the right place the second time they parked the car.
By this time we were pretty sure we were having a bad day. We decided this shouldn’t be Judy’s birthday. Tuesday would be better and that would be her birthday. We did, however, think it would help all three of us if we would go to a nearby restaurant for vino and a bite to eat. We found a place that looked fine, ordered, and tried to make the best of it. About the time the food arrived, so did the more graphic symptoms of food poisoning. It was not a good experience. We were certainly glad that this wasn’t her birthday.